This Week I Wanted, I Bought, I Made

Feel I did okay on the starting to use stuff whilst actually still having some new and interesting food last week, though many things didn't quite materialise. Undeterred I have a plan for the week, actually using some of the leftover plan from last week!

Friday night I think cold collation with little olive choux buns. Ha! How about cold collation with fresh crusty bread from the market? Was good but the bread was much better as toast next morning.

Saturday the man is working so will continue the freezer theme and have pheasant braised with celery and mash for a tasty end to his day. Really good dinner, the pheasant sauce is finished with cream - from the freezer - and egg yolk for a sumptuous sauce. 

Potatoes are heritage ones from Oval market, and purply blue all the way through. Looked *interesting* tasted great. Sunday I really fancy lasagne - I have a tub of white sauce, a block of Pecorino and some beef mince in the freezer and tomatoes and pasta in the cupboard. Served with a big green salad, think it will be lovely for lunches too.

Thoroughly yum.

Monday I fancy soup, probably broccoli and sesame which I've been wondering about for a little while. This is where it started to fall apart - managed to develop a full on head cold that somehow is not going anywhere. So, luckily, there was lasagne already made, and a fine tea it was.




Tuesday omelette and salad, went for the blackeye bean salsa - so glad I did, it was really good - with roasted onion and green bean salad and some tasty Ginger Pig sausages.

Wednesday I'll use the tub of spiced lamb stock from the freezer to make curry with rice and spinach raita. Met up with the lovely niece of the man for a fine dinner at A Wong - go there if you can. Thursday I'm out so the man can have more curry, it's a good one to eat again. Still feeling bleeeuuugh! so soup it is, rocket and potato from a lovely recipe by Anna del Conte.

Went to Borough with a reasonably short list of things to buy. Only needed eggs from Ginger Pig, at £1.50 it's the least I have ever spent there! Milk @ £1.55 from Neals Yard, another lowest spend I think. Gastronomica has reorganised the layout - sort of easier to find lovely things - so bought Napoli salami and it was simply wonderful, when the man and I first met we used to have Napoli sandwiches on Saturday for lunch and the first mouthful reminded me so much of that happy time. Also bought some coppa, and a big slice of a cow/goat/sheep milk mix from a large round, made by the same producers who make the gorgeous rocchetta and La Tur. Cost £13 all together. Then to find bread - there is a newish baker that is actually based in the market and they sell from a stall Thursday - Saturday. Bought a big white tin loaf that was slightly disappointing fresh but seriously good toasted. £3, not a bad price. Went to the parma ham and mozzarella shop and they now sell a couple of other hams as well so had 100g of a cooked ham with fresh herbs, lovely in a sandwich for lunch £4. Finished the shop with rocket, sugarsnaps and celery from the fruit stall at the front that is neither Chegworths or Ted's Veg but is very good, and supplied by Tony Booth, a recommendation, surely. Was £3 though wish it was more versatile.

Great packaging, no?

Through the week bought more milk and needed onions and garlic, sausages for Tuesday night, green beans and veg to juice.

A Tale of Two Chicken Dinners

Sometimes it is necessary to have dinner on the table sooner rather than later. Sometimes if the day has been a busy one that seems like an inordinate challenge. Wanting to eat NOW sometimes gets in the way of good food, from scratch looks way too slow/difficult/ridiculous when you can stick something in the microwave for however long. No chopping for that. Not much pleasure either. Definitely no certainty about what exactly it was you just ate.

Not really talking horsemeat here - though the extent to which no one has been - or apparently ever will be - accountable for that is really depressing. I'm talking about the 5,000 plus additives that go into processed food. The front of the package for a Tesco Classic Chicken dinner offers Succulent chicken in a savoury gravy with roast potatoes, baby carrots, peas and a pork stuffing ball - and really, who wouldn't be tempted?

Flip the box over though and I had to wonder what precisely is being stabilised with disodium diphosphate? Indeed what is - precisely or even vaguely - disodium diphosphate? The list in full reads  Cooked Chicken Breast (25%),Roast Potatoes (24%) ,Water ,Carrot ,Peas ,Pork Stuffing Ball ,Cornflour ,Chicken Stock ,Butter ,Yeast Extract ,Wheat Flour ,Sugar ,Salt ,Caramelised Sugar ,Sage ,Thyme ,White Pepper ,Cooked Chicken Breast contains: Chicken Breast ,Corn Starch ,Roast Potatoes contains: Potato ,Sunflower Oil ,Dextrose ,Pork Stuffing Ball contains: Pork ,Wheat Flour ,Onion ,Pork Fat ,Vegetable Oil ,Potato Starch ,Herbs ,Salt ,Pork Bouillon ,Pork Rind ,Onion Powder ,White Pepper ,Black Pepper ,Stabiliser (Disodium Diphosphate) ,Yeast ,Chicken Stock contains: Water ,Natural (Flavouring) ,Chicken Fat ,Salt ,Cornflour ,Sugar ,Pork Bouillon contains: Salt ,Milk Sugar ,Maltodextrin ,Vegetable Oil ,Yeast Extract ,Sugar ,Onion Powder ,Celery Extract ,Sage Extract ,Pepper Extract ,Turmeric Extract - for one chicken dinner? Cheap though.

My favourite bit though is the cooking instructions - For best results cook from frozen. Remove outer packaging and pierce film lid several times. Remove stuffing ball and potatoes. Then it's 12 minutes in the microwave - returning halfway through to replace the previously removed stuffing ball and potatoes or 50 minutes in the oven. So even with a frozen ready meal you're looking at 50 minutes for conventional cooking. Imagine what the peas are like...

So, the other night I wanted fast and fabulous and definitely not much faff. I had some nice little pieces of chicken - thighs and drumsticks, bone in, skin on - thinking a salad would be good. But this spring is not yet sprung and it was bloody freezing out. Didn't have enough veg in to make a proper roast dinner but I did have some main crop potatoes and plenty of garlic, as always. I warmed a little olive oil in a roasting pan and crisped the chicken skin over a high heat till it was lovely and golden then added the peeled diced potatoes and some whole crushed cloves of garlic and put the pan into the oven at about 200C.

Thirty minutes later, after simply basting a couple of times, the chicken and potatoes were cooked through and wafting lovely smells into the kitchen.

While it cooked I simply washed some lettuce and made a simple salad with chopped red pepper and sliced cucumber. Didn't need dressing. I served the hot chicken and potatoes alongside and sat down to a very fine supper indeed - 35 minutes after I started. Only used the one pan, too, so cleaning up was very quick.

The whole experience was just so conducive to feeling better - well fed and cared for, rather than harrassed and guilty. Would recommend...

DISCLAIMER I didn't buy or eat the tesco one

Tidbits

 The blog has changed a bit of late - Borough Market was once the focus of my food but it has changed and so have I. Nowadays my quest for fabulous encompasses lots of other places as does my weekly food shop. So, welcome to tidbits - all the other stuff I ate this week!

 We had a light supper at Fernandez & Wells at Somerset House, one of the most beautiful rooms I eat in with its impossibly high ceilings and enormous windows and utterly fabulous selection of mostly pork - hams, salami, chorizo, morcilla to go with a couple of well chosen cheeses, and a couple of  perfect nibbles of grilled padron peppers and salted marcona almonds. With a glass of wine there is no finer way to dine before the theatre. Sadly, the play - The Captain of Kopenik starring the inestimable Antony Sher - was a little less than the sum of its parts.

 Maybe one in twenty padron peppers is really hot - and it's always a suprise!

In our second cultural outing for the week we were headed to the Young Vic for A Doll's House, a play I'd never before seen on stage. We started with dinner at The Anchor & Hope, a place that I have really loved for years for its brillaintly cooked, gutsy British food. There was a time when, if there was a dish I'd never eaten but fancied, I would order it in this pub knowing that it would be the best rendition possible and I could decide if I liked it or not. And now, sadly, it's not so. It has many changes of staff over the years and it feels like the puff has gone. Dinner was perfectly reasonable - the man had sweetbreads with peas and bacon and I had a Barnsley chop with sweet potato - but we didn't come out zinging with the pleasure of our meal. It was the same last time we ate there, and I've heard similar reports from others that have eaten there lately. Shame.

The play, however, was brilliant, if you're in London and can get tickets, I urge you to go. It was one of the best nights at the theatre we've had in a while.

Friday brought with it the possibility of adventure. I had booked  to go to A Balkan Dinner, at the Frog on the Green, an event organised by Foodtrips, a brilliant foodie adventure that creates fabulous holidays I lust after and occasional nights like this. I know nothing of the food of the Balkans but it turns out the unifying elements is yoghurt. Which works for me - I am very fond indeed of a good yoghurt.

Chef John Gionleka stems from Albania, but his family and interests both span the entire region. His love of peasant food is paired with not quite so peasanty technique. John runs "Frog on the Green", the amazing deli on the Nunhead/Peckham borders that was host to us for the night.

My favourite of the night - chicken with a lemony yoghurt finished with hazelnut butter and mint

Globe zucchini stuffed wtih pork and pine kernels was well matched with soured goats' yoghurt

Loved the spring lamb but was almost defeated by the yoghurt gratin

 It was a brilliant evening - the shop had been converted into an ad hoc dining room and a group of fairly random strangers gathered to indulge in this lovely feast with musical interludes between courses.

 Saturday morning I nipped  up to my local farmers market at Oval. There's a good organic fruit and veg stall - the loss of Tony Booth from Borough is what really made the wheel fall off my food trolley, finding a new supply of great veg is an ongoing challenge. Bought potatoes, candy striped beetroot - because how could I resist?! - and probably the final purple sprouting broccoli of the year. Was planning a salad but alas is still too cold.

This is my biggest delight of the week. It's a tofu mould that I had to send to China for as they seem to be unobtainable any where closer than that. I have bought Asian Tofu, largely because I have never been able to buy tofu that comes anywhere near the bean curd flower we eat at Baozoi Inn. It is one of the best things I have ever eaten and it is more seductive every time I try it. So, adventures in tofu coming up!

I wanted..I bought...I made

A quick list on the back of an envelope, transferred here later. Friday mussels pizza muffins as the carb content of a cold collation on a wet and stormy night, Saturday the lovely Vicki is celebrating her birthday and we are all out to dinner at the Canton Arms. Sunday burgers and salad slow roasted ham hock with onions and steamed potatoes. Monday turkey noodles. Tuesday steamed eggs and peppers, Wednesday we are at the theatre and Thursday there will be fishcakes with sorrel sauce as I have been reading about fishcakes and wondering about sorrel sauce as I have a pot in the garden burgers and rice salad as I have a recipe for salad I'm wondering about!.

Friday afternoon was wet and cold and horrible at Borough. I started at Neals Yard and bought milk and yoghurt, and a st john stick £10.65

Then coffee from Monmouth - £12 - coffee prices are rising

From Harriet's organics I bought garlic, carrots, potatoes, radish and a beautifully scented melon for £8.90

A fennel from Turnips - £1.30

Strawberries and lettuce from Chegworth - £4

Cheese from Gastronomica - a soft cow and a hard sheep - £10.80 and later in the week some braesola £4.50 for a sandwich before the theatre

Eggs from Wild Beef - £3.40

Tomatoes from Isle of Wight - £3.50 - wildly expensive but so very good

Black and green olives from Vahid plus some sundried tomatoes for muffins - £8.60

That was all £76.15 - a lot in a week without buying fresh meat

Bought other things too - cabbage and bananas round the corner, and butter, chocolate and cherries to make a cherry ripe cake to celebrate Vicki's birthday

For anyone interested in what's going on with traders and trustees at the market this is a good round up Turns out the building that the trustees have agreed to be built by Network Rail for the new market front is all glass, and so unsuitable for fresh produce. Odd, at the very least.

I wanted... I bought.... I made

I love great vegetables!

Apologies for intermittent blogging lately, not keeping up as well as I should but have had trips away and folks to stay. Normal service should resume...

Friday we are out and Saturday the lovely Marie is coming to visit with baby Teddy which will be a treat. Planning muffins for lunch, easy and good with salad. Dinner might be pork chops leftover muffins and snacks and bits. Sunday I have a chicken in the freezer that I want to steam then crisp the skin, think it would be good with salads roasted in plain and simple with hot boiled veg that became potato salad for lunches. Monday tofu and greens salad nicoise, Tuesday pork balls, spicy with sweet potato and salad pork chops!, Wednesday dal as I've been reading about it and have a hankering tofu and greens. Thursday omelette and salad risotto with the last of the chicken with spring onions.

Borough was busyish Friday afternoon, very odd to approach and find Flour Power gone, no more famous brownie towers or toast bread for that matter. They were told to go as the trustees claim they have grown too big, but that doesn't seem to apply to Hotel Chocolat's multinational status. The space is now filled by the plant people - largely decorative rather than edible.

Started at Neals Yard to discover they had no bread left. With flour Power usually the first stall you come to, now everyone is round the corner and into Neals Yard, cleared the lot before lunch apparently. The guy serving was just about to increase the order for the next day but not good for me. Pfff.I bought yoghurt, milk and pasta, spent £8.40

Then to Silfield as I have been fancying ham hock recently and I always buy theirs. Glad to see a hock mountain - one for me £3.50 though the guy serving said I could have 2 for £7

To Chegworth for exquisitely scented strawberries and a lovely fresh lettuce - £4.50

Cucumber from Organics - £1.30

Chocolates from L'Artisan - still a totally bargainous £2

Eggs from Wild Beef - gone up 40p a dozen but they are worth it - £3.40 now

Suddenly fancied grilled pork chops, so to Ginger Pig for 2 lovely specimens - £6.50

Wanted olives so was round to Fresh Olive, looking for green ones with tarragon but no joy. Bought green ones with jalapeno and garlic stuffed inside and they are divine. £3.50

Spent just over £33 but had very little veg.

With Booths gone shopping at Borough is a much less satisfying experience, it is such a good fruit and vegetable monger, great range and quality at reasonable prices. Turnips is still trading but they are seriously expensive, and Secretts don't even bother to put prices on their produce. Chegworth have a few little bits of very nice vegetables, Harriet has good organic stuff but a very limited range, and Ted's Veg is only there Saturdays. I've tried our local market at Oval but their veg is not very good, the fruit shop round the corner has good stuff sometimes but is not reliable and they are currently selling carrots from China. Decided this week I'd try the farmers market at Brixton Sunday - bought beautiful watercress, nice looking potatoes that sadly had almost no flavour, some fresh peas that were nice but not more and a cabbage I've yet to try. It's really frustrating after years of great produce. Next I will bite the bullet and shop at Turnips as the alternative is shopping at Maltby Street, which I'd love to do but it is a considerable schlepp, a couple of hours extra at least which is lot every week. But I may do it!

Do read about the current Borough scenario here if you have some time.

Also went to a new cheese shop in Victoria and bought some lovely bits there to top up our snack repertoire and was back to Borough early in the week for more yoghurt and milk as smoothies delight for weekend breakfasts meant we used loads.